Steelheart

At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.

Opinion

From Library Staff

Young David watched his father die by the hands of an Epic named Steelheart, a human with superhuman powers and a corrupt mind. Now eighteen, David plans to uncover Steelheart's weaknesses and extract his revenge.

We always assume that having superheroes would be great, but what if they weren't heroes at all? David watched as the man the city thought would be their salvation killed his Dad and many others in cold blood. Now, David and the Reckoners are determined to bring the Epics down and show you don't... Read More »

What if superheros weren't so super? What if they were evil? That is exactly what happens in Steelheart. David watches as an Epic, a superhero, kills his father. This sets him down a path that will change his life forever as he tries to destroy Steelheart.

When David was a child, an unexplained phenomenon called Calamity gave some people extraordinary, often deadly, powers. Steelheart, one of the worst of these Epics, killed his father. Now David seeks revenge with the help of the Reckoners.

From the critics

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This is a great superhero book with a main character who isn't a superhero! Although he is fascinated by them, he is actually working against them because their power has gone to their heads. The people with powers actually aren't heroes at all, they are villains who rule through fear and violence. It is up to the resistance, made up of normal folks, who find and exploit the weaknesses of those with powers. Great idea from a great author and the start to a great series. Read it!

From the outside, Steelheart seems like nothing more than your average, bland YA novel: orphaned teenaged kid fights evil supervillains in a dystopian world… nothing special, right? Wrong. The odd thing about Steelheart is that it is able to turn a flat and unoriginal premise into something amazing. It’s written with passion and spunk, and it’s a brilliant example of taking something boring and uncreative and making it extraordinary. Sanderson really knows how to write convincing, fluid characters, and in Steelheart, they seem to leap off of the page with their authenticity. Each and every single one is wonderfully complex and realistic. Unpredictable and intense, hilarious and epic, Steelheart turns the tropes of every boring YA novel on its head. You’ll wish it never ends. 5/5
- @Apis of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

Steelheart starts with a lot of clichés but it keeps the story original and interesting enough to keep my attention. The story is about a boy named David who meets a group of people called the Reckoners in the apocalypse to fight a band of people called epics who have gotten superpowers for some reason and are corrupting the world. Sound familiar? But Sanderson has really gotten an in depth view on the mechanics of this broken world. He explains brilliantly how the people are suffering and why David should help them. There are also different classes of epics to explain how powerful different groups of them are and a lot of them have very unique powers. Obviously, there has to be an ultimate villain in this story called Steelheart who kills David's dad and David wants to get revenge on him. This is basically the entire plot of the story but the progression of the characters is what makes this book stand out. All in all, I like this book and you should give it a read. 4 out of 5.
- @Henny_Lee of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library

I enjoyed this book. Just when you think that it has an ending like you've seen before, it changes into some ending you never saw coming. I especially liked how the main character wasn't some dumb, idiotic character that was great at everything. In fact, he just might be the opposite which makes this book 10x better. The author added logic into everything he wrote so you can never think, "Why didn't the characters just do <inserts a better idea>."

Great read! I really enjoyed the unique superpower system and I loved the way the author pressed the idea of too much power corrupting even the best of people. Very action-packed and I really like the world building and characters. They were very relatable and complex especially the main. I would highly recommend this series to anyone who likes superheroes, fantasy, magic or anyone who just likes a good, fast-paced book.

Summary

The book opens with David’s memorable narration of his father’s death. He also manages to explain that Epics were ordinary men who suddenly possessed extraordinary powers after the appearance of “Calamity” in the night sky. As a kid, David believed in what his father believed, that although there were bad Epics who were using their powers for personal advantage, there also must be heroes that would protect the general public from the bad Epics. While David and his father are visiting a banker, an Epic named Deathpoint (yep, you guessed it, if he points at you, you will vaporize) storms into the bank and starts killing people left and right to prove his power. David’s father planned on shooting Deathpoint with a gun from one of the fallen security guards, but is stopped when another more powerful Epic named Steelheart also enters the bank. Steelheart names himself the ruler of Chicago and in the ensuing aftermath Deathpoint tries to strangle Steelheart from behind. David’s father, wrongfully believing Steelheart is the hero everyone has been waiting for, shoots Deathpoint in the head. In the process, Steelheart’s face is grazed by the bullet, surprising everyone, especially Steelheart. Scared by his sudden vulnerability, Steelheart executes David’s father and all the people in the bank to remove all eyewitnesses. All except David. Ten years later, David has grown up by himself in Newcago (Chicago under Steelheart’s rule) and has been plotting vengeance the whole time. His knowledge of Epics leads him to the Reckoners, a shadowy group of humans who are the only ones fighting back. Can David help the Reckoners defeat Steelheart and liberate the people of Newcago? Read Steelheart to find out!

David watched his dad die in a bank by an epic named steel heart, he has spent the last 10 years of his life preparing for this moment and finally it has arrived...He saw steelheart bleed now he will see him bleed again.